“More than 750 plaintiffs are suing the Johns Hopkins Hospital System Corp. over its role in a series of medical experiments in Guatemala in the 1940s and 1950s during which subjects were infected with venereal diseases. The lawsuit in Baltimore seeks $1 billion in damages for individuals, spouses and children of people infected with syphilis, gonorrhea and other sexually transmitted diseases through a U.S. government program between 1945 and 1956. The suit claims Johns Hopkins officials had ‘substantial influence’ over the studies, controlling some advisory panels, and were involved in planning and authorizing the experiments. An attorney for Hopkins calls the suit ‘baseless.’ A Hopkins spokesperson said in a statement that the institution ‘did not initiate, pay for, direct or conduct the study in Guatemala.’ Hopkins confirmed that faculty members took part in reviewing funding applications, but said this did not warrant a lawsuit against the medical center.” Source: CBS News
According to Wikipedia, the Guatemala study was led by Dr. John C. Cutler of the U.S. Public Health Service, who also participated in the Tuskegee syphilis experiment.Photos: Drs. John C. Cutler, Josef Mengele, and Shiro Ishii were pioneers in the field of human medical studies